Bring In The Shark
In an earlier blog, CE wrote about how the movie Jaws benefited from the technical problems the film crew experienced with the mechanical shark, her point being that the high level of suspense was enhanced by the fact that movie viewers spent more time imagining the shark than actually seeing the Hollywood creation.
That movie, filmed on a coastal island of my home state, left a great impression on me. The book, too. In fact, I still remember the first time I saw someone reading Jaws. It was my junior year in high school. I recall looking over and seeing the paperback in the hands of a fellow student. I was all about boats, I was all about the water, and I couldn't figure out why this cute girl in a pleated skirt had a book with a shark on the cover. But it didn't take long to figure things out. Word of mouth and marketing thrust Jaws forward faster than Lady Gaga riding a cruise missle.
A half dozen years later I spent a few summers on Martha's Vineyard and when I'd ride the road up island I'd always take notice of the derelict boat in Menemsha Pond left behind by the film crew. And I'd learn more about Peter Benchley and his personal reflection that Jaws called attention to Great Whites in ways that encouraged over-fishing and over-stated fear.
My own experience with sharks, other than sand sharks, remained quite limited. My wife reminds me that we saw some big sharks when we swam off the boat in the British West Indies, and I remember getting out of the water once in North Bimini when, swimming by myself, I saw the large roaming shadow of what may or not have been a bull shark. Nevertheless, when it came to penning a Steve Decatur mystery, a great white worked its way into the story.
And now, as summer approaches, I'm presented with the option of pitching my book as a beach read. Given this, I thought that maybe it's time to consider the extent to which I should highlight the shark in an effort to sell books. I was giving this some consideration when mother nature nudged me a bit.
Check this out:
The same story made the papers in Boston and around New England. But the UK's Daily Mail? Now that's reach.
What do I say? Bring in the Shark!
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